Supreme Court Adjourns Centre's Plea To Modify Stay Of OBC Quota In MP Local Body Polls To Jan 17

The Supreme Court today adjourned Central Government's application seeking recall or modification of Top Court's order dated December 17 by which it had stayed the election process in the seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the local body elections in Madhya Pradesh for January 17, 2022.The bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar in their order said,"List the matters on January 17, 2022. Let the application by the Union of India be also listed on that day."Courtroom ExchangeWhen the matter was called for hearing, Justice AM Khanwilkar the presiding judge of the bench said that the matter can be heard on January 17 along with the petitions challenging the Maharashtra Ordinance which introduced 27% OBC quota in the local body elections"This will come on January 17, other matters are coming on that day. There's already an order to list them on January 17. On January 17 all matters will come," remarked Justice Khanwilkar.Senior Advocate Vivek Tankha appearing for the petitioner (Manmohan Nagar) submitted that the petition had become infructuous since the petition had assailed the ordinance which had been withdrawn.In response to Senior Advocate's submission Justice AM Khanwilkar remarked, "You have created this situation. Now you'll have to wait."Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Union of India submitted that the Union had issued directions to the States to comply with the enunciation laid down in K. Krishnamurthy v. Union of India (2010) 7 SCC 202 and Vikas Kishanrao Gavli v. State of Maharashtra LL 2021 SC 13. Mr Mehta further submitted that the Union had also filed an application seeking various reliefs. Senior Advocate Harish Salve appeared for the State of Madhya Pradesh.Details Of The Plea Relief for directing the local body elections to be deferred for a period of four months with a mandate to the State Government to come out with the report of the Commission and directing the State Election Commission to hold the elections accordingly had also been sought. As an interim measure, the Central government in its application had also prayed for suspending the process of elections. It had been argued that uplifting the SC, ST and OBCs has been the government's priority and inadequate representation of OBC's in local self government would defeat the very object, intent and purpose of the very idea of decolonization of power and taking governance to the grass root level. Contending that inadequate representation or non representation of OBCs has two fold adverse impacts, the application stated that, "Firstly, the persons belonging to OBC category are deprived of an opportunity to be elected to the elected positions through democratic process and fulfil the aspirations of not only the residents of OBC community but everyone else which helps development of leadership quality in such communities. Secondly, such inadequate representation or non-representation deprives the voters belonging to OBCs community to elect one amongst them to the elected offices. It is humbly submitted that the same is strictly contrary to the object, intent and purpose of the constitutional scheme." Central Government had further stated that the impugned order was passed at a stage when the election process was ongoing with representation of persons belonging to OBC community. "Any intervention at this stage would deprive the persons belonging to OBC community for five long years which by no stretch of logic can be said to be a short period causing grave prejudices to the backward classes," application stated. In light of this it had also been stated that while the mandate of law in K. Krishnamurthy case and Vikas Kishanrao Gavli case has to be complied with, Top Court may consider striking a balance between the adherence to the aforesaid judgments and protecting the interest of persons belonging to OBC category which is of utmost priority for the Central Government. With regards to the request made by the Top Court to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, to impress upon the concerned Authority to issue a communication to the respective State Election Commissions to strictly adhere to the enunciation laid down in Vikas Kishanrao Gawali, Centre had said that, "As per the assurance given before this Hon'ble Court, the Central Government has already issued a detailed advisory sent to all the State Governments requiring their strict compliance with binding judicial pronouncements in case of "K. Krishnamurthy v. Union of India" (2010) 7 SCC 202 and "Vikas Kishanrao Gavli v. State of Maharashtra" (2021) 6 SCC 73" In light of this, Central Government had said that such intervention would not only result in compliance of the mandate laid down in K Krishna Murthy and Vikas Kishanrao Gavli's case but also take care of deprivation of the constitutional rights to OBC without in any manner extending the tenure of outgoing members/body who have...

Supreme Court Adjourns Centre's Plea To Modify Stay Of OBC Quota In MP Local Body Polls To Jan 17

Shruti Kakkar

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